#i had to freehand it and i don’t draw animals like. ever but the sketch on paper looked really good

[sofarsogoodsowhat]

NOT FINISHED YET MY HAND GAVE UP ON ME BUT THIS IS THE FIRST REAL THING IVE DONE W JUST MY MACHINE

[artandhuddle]

Artist Interview with Daphne Hutcheson

Last week I had the opportunity to speak with Daphne Hutcheson, an artist I’ve admired for quite some time. Her work and knowledge in the arts has helped me, along with many other artists in the online community.

Daphne Hutcheson, also known as @paperwick on social media, has been creating artwork from a very young age, with works in both traditional and digital media. Her work covers a broad range of fandoms, original content, and client based works along with some very useful and resourceful tutorials. 

K: I wanted to first ask about your experience attending SCAD (Savannah College of Art & Design)?

D: My experience at SCAD was tepid at best. The teachers were good, but I mean very specifically the professors who were teaching in my major, which was sequential art. SCAD is really not a great institute for anyone who isn't rich enough for their parents' to cover the cost. That's my biggest issue with it, they will cripple you with debt, so if anyone is lower-income, I would highly suggest learning via some of great online courses or using a state college's art program to sort of direct you if you need direction and deadlines. I know I need them. SCAD's loans are no joke. The college itself was very good my first year, they do a lot to make sure incoming students feel heard and welcomed, and then after that they really don't try for you. As soon as you're a sophomore, they could care less about how you feel to be there. Their class attendance requirements are grueling and there's no room for accidents--you miss four class sessions and you fail the course. It's wild, and even if you're in the hospital, those absences will not be forgiven. If you're late, it counts as an absence.I don't recommend it. At all. All the learning I garnered there is online accessible these days, one just has to hunker down, find it, and put it to practice. My professors were great, but no education is worth that price tag. Depending on your major there, you will be treated differently by the school. For example, their fashion and fibers majors are doted on, whereas a major like animation is ground hard into the dirt. There were unrealisitc deadlines to meet for class projects and kids would be in the school buildings overnight trying to meet them. Some fell asleep in their chairs and Paula Wallace (the owner) saw that one day and had them replace the chairs with far less comfortable chairs. Some kids had heart attacks from staying up to meet deadlines. Such a bad work culture of "all-nighters". In part the students' fault, but none of the faculty really stopped it or discouraged it, save one teacher in a different major, and that being said, that teacher still gave ridiculous deadlines so we'd "be prepared for the industry". That's not at all what the industry is like (discluding the game industry right now). It is truly a hard place to thrive and everyone I've known who has graduated had months to years of burnout after finishing, including myself. I'd hazard real caution when choosing to go to a private art college, art institutes included.No education is worth that amount of debt.

K: Wow, that’s unfortunate to hear. I wonder if students are having similar experiences at colleges such as CAD or RISD?

D: I have heard very similar things about places like RISD and CAD where it’s all about the money, but I can’t point you towards any of the specifics. I really just want people to go into it with a clear head and know it’s going to be hard exiting. They really don’t prepare you for business.

K: What would you have done differently? Would you have signed up for online courses?

D: If I was to do it over, I would have liked to dive straight into developing personal projects, just making the work. Watching and reading free youtube videos and blog posts by artists. That would not have flown with my parents, they’re very by the book “go to college or get a job” type people. With than in mind, I would’ve gone to the local college I was within biking distance of as a sort of clean, and done fairly half assed studies by full assed my artwork.

K: That sounds like what a lot of artists, particularly those interested in digital art are doing. But, have you ever considered going back to school, or enrolling in a program or an atelier that you think would be beneficial to your art career?

D: Not genuinely. If I had time, I wouldn't mind enrolling in something that would teach me puppet animation, but between freelance and my day job, it's hard to find time to produce personal work and then also learn. I am pro-learning, always learning because that keeps your work fresh, keeps your mind sharp and ready to switch up on a dime. But course work is something I'm not super fond of, to be honest.

K: I understand. So, you've graduated and are currently doing freelance work along with your other day job. In your freelance work, what kind of work are you taking from clients?

D: Mostly I do storyboard animatics for a few advertising agencies, but I do some card art for games here and there, like Companion's Tale. I just signed on to do some tarot card artwork for a company called Legacy: Fables. I'll take anything that sounds interesting and that I have time for. It's all digital; traditional art is way more personal for me so I almost exclusively make traditional artwork as gifts for friends.

K: Are there any particular fandoms or genres that you tend to work more in?

D: As far as fandom work and commissions, it's Dragon Age all the way BABY! It's a good community and I owe a lot to them. I'm planning on reopening my tarot commissions here soon once I finish up a few of my freelance projects. I am an old hat with fantasy stuff and most comfortable there, but I really want to start working on robots and mechanics and cities. All that sci-fi goodness.

K: Wow, that's great to hear you've got very steady work, and they’re with industries and agencies! I hope you'll get to share that work once it's gone down the production pipeline. Have you ever considered applying for work with a company like EA/Bioware?

D: Yeah! I've lucked out a lot, it feels like all of this sort of dumped itself in my lap. My biggest resistance to applying to Bioware or any gaming industry position right is rooted in how they treat their workers. Bioware, specifically back when Anthem was released, had a nasty report come out on how management had run their workers to the point of many having mental breakdowns, and several just leaving and never coming back. They refer to those who have breakdowns while working during their months and months of crunch as "stress casualties", and I'm honestly quite disgusted by what I hear. I think once the gaming industry unionizes I'll consider applying, but the things I hear, not just about Bioware and EA... It's horrifying. Riot, Blizzard, Activision, Treyarch, Rockstar... the list could go on. Not to like tank the conversation into a dark place, I just have such strong feelings about it.

K: That's ok! It's good to hear different perspectives, especially when talking about the industry. Alright, on to the next question. Looking at your work, from sequential narrative to tarot artwork, I’m really impressed by your storytelling. When you’re creating stories and characters, do you pull a lot from your own experiences and emotions, or more from other sources such as music, film, or literature?

D: Ahh that's a hard one. I think I pull far more from outside of me than inside of me.The way things are shaped comes from my own experience, but I think a lot of my content comes from outside influences, like movies, books, music, and art.Howls Moving Castle, the book not the film, had a huge affect on me and how light I want the stories I tell to be, but I think I have a long way to go when putting stories together.I am super empathetic so it's easy to take outside influences and really feel them, but also it's hard to tell where I start and those influences ends.

K: Very well said, and the comment about the novel, I can really feel that in your personal work, especially your recent animated landscape piece.

D: Thanks!

K: The first time I came across your work was one of your Dragon Age tarot works, but also the tutorial on how you created them. It was incredibly helpful to me and I know to lots more artists. Your tutorials and words of advice have proven very successful, but have you ever received any advice or tutorials that really switched gears or level upped your techniques?

D: The answer is yes, absolutely. Let me see, I don't seek out tutorials anymore, but there was something I saw recently that was good. Sinix's head from any angle is a great approach to drawing faces at crazy angles. Also, check out Bunabi on Tumblr. Bunabi is so fast and her work is beautiful, and has great tutorials also, just incredible. 

I unfortunately can’t link to any specifics, but tutorials like this one do me a lot of good.  

People can just screenshot process stuff that reminds me that there are a million ways to approach art, like sketch up, grids, freehanding. I think I benefit from understanding that there are a million approaches more than following the tutorials super hard.

K: Great,thank you! I wanted to ask a few more questions, one about your Patreon. It seems like the next big wave for digital artists. How has it been creating one and keeping on top of the awards, and is there anything you would want to do differently with yours?

D: So Patreon is kind of a basket you can fill with prizes, maybe some of the prizes for money (probably prizes for money), and that works for a lot of people. I have a more of a "here's content I don't put elsewhere if you'd like it" approach to it cause I'm inconsistent with patron pay-outs. Patreon for artists with chronic mental illness is a struggle. Hands down. I started one hoping it would iron out my discipline issues a year or two back, and it didn't. It made me feel hella guilty cause I could not keep up with what I said I'd keep up with, and then I felt worse. It was disastrous. I refunded most of the pledges I got during the three months I had it open. Then I closed it for a year and brought it back online recently. Now all my content is free, it's still inconsistent, but if people want to support me I welcome it. I think Patreon is a good platform, but I will never be able to use it is intended. I respect the people who can keep up with it all, that kind of discipline takes a crazy amount of strength of character, but I don't motivate with money very well. In the end, I motivate through helping others as best I can, so it'll always be free content. I have very few plans for it, other than I want to put together a brush pack and share it there with brushes I made. I just need a moment to sit down and make that happen. I've got a tutorial for using photos to make quick painted backgrounds too, and I just have to organize that sucker.

K: Thank you for being so open about it. I think what you're doing is so insightful and helpful in what you're offering to your followers, especially those who may also be struggling with anxiety and depression.

K: Can you share what your process is like from a sketch to a finished piece? Do you thumbnail a lot before, use references to build from, and so on?

D: I like to do throw away thumbnails on notepaper.

And then I take those thumbnails and do a more thought out version digitally.

K: Wow, these are both beautiful. If you don't share these with patrons already, I would! I also like that you've given each one their own color, a good way to organize!

D: Thank you! I'll make sure to share these, I forget about them genuinely. I'll diverge in two directions from here depending on need. If what I'm working on is simple, I hop straight into color. If it's going to be complicated, ie crazy armor, specific architecture, I will do a line pass first and then launch into color. Either way, this is where most of my references come into play. Once that is solid I add detail work.

K: Reference can be so important in art; it really can bring work to a new level if used properly!

D: Yeah reference is king. I use it constantly, even when doing the most stylized thing, cause there's always stuff you forget. The waves I did for my last card, I had reference of barrel waves up constantly, and it helps a ton.

K: My last question is where do you see yourself in five years? I know this can be a challenging question, but if you had any goals or plans you’d like to see come into fruition, what would they be?

D: Five years? These questions are always a struggle for me. I try not to look past a week at a time because it's all so BIG. And my life has undergone so many huge changes in such a short period of time SO MANY times that it's hard to make long term plans. Especially when dealing with mental illness. So I try to think less about where I'll be in any amount of time, and more about what I want to progress towards achieving, it's a little easier and sets up less expectation. So this is not necessarily a five year plan, and more an eventual future plan. I want to have enough tutorial work to put together an art resources book/pdf online. I want to develop my freelance work further and create my own studio, ideally for illustrative style work, smaller animations, and maybe some classes for people interested in color and storytelling. I want to put together a small guide of sorts also for artists and people who need healing, since there's so many of us. That one is harder because it's an amorphous subject, but I think there's a lot of room for commentary there and a lot of people wanting to hear it, and I think it'll have to come from all those hurting. It's just a matter of how we'll organize that.I am a huge sap. That's my way. So in 5 years I'm hoping I'll be a better and more helpful sap.

K: Well, I hope you're able to make a lot of this happen, we need more empathy and help in the world. Thank you again Daphne for your time, this was really informative and an honest interview which I know others will appreciate.

D: Thank you, Kallie!

You can find more of Daphne’s beautiful works (and tutorials) here:

Patreon

Twitter

Tumblr

[writethehousedown]

Here Comes the Sun 3/7 (Branjie) -- athena2

Day 3, Puddle: Vanessa has a run-in with a giant puddle that brings Brooke a little closer to her heart.

Thank you to Writ for betaing! I’d appreciate any feedback you have!

Lunch with Brooke. She’s going to have lunch with Brooke.

Vanessa takes a little extra care with her outfit this morning, whipping out a black dress with red and purple flowers–it is spring, after all, even if the weather doesn’t want to cooperate–and hits her hair with enough spray to hold even if the rain returns. She goes with her black flats, because she likes being small next to Brooke, so small she could just nestle against her, so small that Brooke leans down ever so slightly to make sure Vanessa hears her when she talks.

The sun hesitantly peeks out between the clouds, and Vanessa feels in each step that today is going to be a good day. She’s having lunch with Brooke. She finished her giant guinea pig craft, a sturdy foam board and fake fur recreation of Bertha, ready for the class to burst into oohs and aahs when they saw it. She forgets about the massive crater in the sidewalk that sends at least a dozen kids to the nurse with scrapes each year, that the school board has been promising to fix since the dawn of time. Pain in her knees means they broke her fall, and she’s so focused on holding onto the real Bertha in her carrying case that the craft guinea pig flies out of her grasp and slams into a puddle big enough to swim in with a loud splat.  

For a minute she stays on the ground, resisting the urge to cry as dirty puddle water soaks the foam. It’s stupid, really, to be near tears over a craft project, but she spent most of the night on it, laying down fake fur with all the care she gives to real Bertha, and she just wanted it to be perfect.

“Vanessa, are you okay?”

Cool hands help her up, and Vanessa knows from the long, pale fingers–fingers skilled enough to cut out delicate snowflakes other teachers wouldn’t even attempt, including coveted Baby Yoda ones last winter–that the hands belong to Brooke.

Vanessa blinks away her daze as she stands. “I-I’m okay.”

“Your knees are a little scraped. The crater strikes again.”

Vanessa looks around Brooke’s shoulder into the puddle, heart sinking as she pulls out the craft. The entire thing is soaked with dirty gray water, fake fur clumped and tangled.

“I guess that’s the end of that,” she mutters.

“I’m sorry, Vanessa.” Brooke’s voice is so sincere it makes Vanessa shiver. “It’s Bertha, right?”

“It was. I was gonna have the kids make little ones and put them around her, like her babies. I guess I’ll have to do it another day.”

Brooke nods. “Why don’t we go inside? You can come in my room and I’ll fix up your knees. I have Batman Band-Aids,” she tempts.

Vanessa smiles despite herself. “Say no more.”

—

Vanessa perches herself on Brooke’s desk, which is much cleaner than hers. There’s neatly labelled trays for different papers, bins for markers and scissors, and a Totoro mug for pens and pencils. Vanessa hasn’t gotten a good look at Brooke’s classroom with its new spring decorations, and the bright colors keep her head spinning around while Brooke rubs cream on her knees. (Vanessa could have done it herself, really, but Brooke had offered in a nervous tone, desperate to help, and Vanessa agreed, touched by how much she wanted to help and unable to resist having Brooke’s hands touch her skin).

Bright green stems stretch up the classroom door, ending in tiny tulips and daffodils that each bear a student’s name. The walls are a construction paper animal kingdom come to life: white bunnies with cotton-ball tails hop around after carrots, yellow chicks splash water at each other, and red birds fly toward the ceiling (as high as they can go while still adhering to fire codes).

“Tell me you didn’t even need a ladder to hang those birds,” Vanessa teases.

Brooke applies the last Band-Aid, her hands soft and gentle. “I didn’t,” she admits, blush creeping into her cheeks. God, she’s adorable.

“I’m assuming you have some trouble hanging things up?” Brooke prompts with a grin.

Vanessa just sighs. “You know those warning signs saying not to stand on a stack of chairs, and you think, ‘what idiot would stand on a stack of chairs’?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m the idiot.” Vanessa cackles. “Tried to put my little alphabet signs over the chalkboard and went down like an avalanche. I was coughing up chalk dust for a month.”

Brooke bites her lip, like she’s afraid it would be rude to laugh, but when Vanessa starts, to let her know it’s okay, Brooke snorts so fiercely it makes Vanessa laugh even harder.

“I’m sorry,” Brooke gasps between snorts, “but that’s hilarious. You know, if you need anything hung up, just ask me.”

“I’ll do that.” Vanessa flexes her knees, now tricked out with the Dark Knight. “You’re a Band-Aid pro, by the way. My knees feel a lot better.”

“Good.” Brooke smiles. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

“See you at lunch.”

It’s almost enough to make Vanessa forget about her ruined craft project.

—

Brooke’s kids are in art class with Miss Scarlet for the next 45 minutes, and she gets to work on her surprise for Vanessa.

There’s no template big enough, which means she’ll have to draw a giant guinea pig freehand. Vanessa’s much better at drawing than Brooke, that’s for sure. She usually goes for the trace-and-cut-out method, but Vanessa can actually draw. Sometimes Brooke watches her sketch during lunch, her tongue sticking out slightly, brown eyes narrowed in focus, and Brooke forgets all about her own sandwich, filling her body with nothing but Vanessa.

After ten guinea pig drawing tutorials and five unsuccessful attempts, Brooke spreads the successful poster board out on her long student tables.

She glues white fake fur over the whole thing, adding little brown spots and googly-eye stickers and a pink nose until it looks like Bertha. It’s not as good as Vanessa’s, looking a bit like a potato with legs, but Brooke hopes Vanessa will understand that she wanted to help, wanted to cheer her up after this morning.

When it’s lunch time, she tucks the board under her arm and knocks on Vanessa’s door.

“Brooke?” Vanessa’s eyes drift to the board and narrow in confusion.

“I made you a new guinea pig,” Brooke explains, showing Vanessa the board. “You were so upset about it, and I just…I wanted to help. I hope that’s okay.”

Vanessa’s hand goes to her mouth, and Brooke’s stomach writhes, certain she’s ruined things. She should have never done this, Vanessa hates her—

“Brooke, this is amazing!”

“You like it?”

“I really do. Thank you.” Her fingers brush against Brooke’s as she takes it, and Brooke’s body rushes with warmth.

“Lunch?” She offers.

Vanessa nods.

—-

Brooke hears some of the other teachers talking about the weather forecast, and the idea pops into her head. Something about Vanessa makes her want to be brave, want to take a chance like Nina always encourages. Brooke takes a deep breath and speaks before she loses her nerve.

“I was thinking, um, it’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow. Maybe we could take our kids out for a little picnic lunch?”

Vanessa’s eyes light up, so bright Brooke almost melts at how adorable Vanessa is, especially when she claps her hands and grins.

“I love that, Brooke! Let’s do it.” Her eyes take on a mischievous gleam. “What if me and you make lunch for each other?”

Brooke doesn’t stray too much in her food choices–mostly salads and sandwiches, leftovers of what she made for dinner. She likes routine, likes packing her lunch and knowing exactly what she’ll eat. But something about the prospect of Vanessa choosing things for her, taking the time to pick out what she thinks Brooke will like and packing it all up, makes her think a break from routine might be okay.

“Okay,” Brooke agrees. “Do you have any allergies I should know about? Picky about anything?”

“Ooh, I used to be picky like you wouldn’t believe. Survived a whole year on basically mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, and tortillas when I was four.” Vanessa laughs. “I’m not that picky anymore. No allergies either. PB and J, deli stuff, whatever. Just don’t feed me any broccoli.”

Brooke snorts. “I wouldn’t serve broccoli to my worst enemy. I don’t have any food allergies either.”

Vanessa reaches out her hand. “It’s a picnic date then.”

Brooke shakes it, Vanessa’s skin soft and smooth and warm, sending courage through Brooke’s heart. “It’s a date.”

Tags: rpdr fanfiction, branjie, brooke lynn hytes, vanessa vanjie mateo, athena2, here comes the sun, lesbian au, spring fling 2020, day 3: puddle

[maiji]

Process and wip images for A House That Holds Long Limbs (Part 2) 

See Part 1 process and wip documentation

Read the pages for part 2 here (full complete version will be linked from YYH North Bound master post) 

As a story progresses, I tend to become more comfortable with jumping ahead and around in my so-called process. This is mainly because the idea of getting deeper into the action is exciting and I want to get to drawing the pages as quickly as possible. The downside is that it usually results in a lot of “oops” and rework on what was supposed to be a final page.

Here you’ll see that script/pagination/thumbnailing and final pages are all starting to drift even more than in Part 1.

The (last version of the) script

Earlier versions were even more point form and incoherent with typos. But, it only needs to capture enough that I can recognize key actions, points of dialogue, the mood, things to draw in the panels, etc. A few specific items to point out:

“[new part 2]”: The script originally had no exposition on rokurokubi - it went straight to Hokushin telling Raizen he was leaving. It occurred to me later, after I’d started thumbnailing, that inserting a few pages of storytelling narrative right here would help to further solidify the kaidan (traditional Japanese ghost story) effect and mood. More importantly, it creates a baseline reference for what the reader will know about rokurokubi for the purposes of this story. I was lucky that Part 1 and Part 2 were cut neatly enough that this wouldn’t be jarring.

I’m still not entirely happy with the text for this section, mainly the “features of note” about rokurokubi. Not just the fact that it’s oversimplification and slight adaptation of actual Japanese folklore - which can’t be avoided unless I want to write a historical essay here. I’m mainly not super keen on how each of the three items has been phrased. It’d be nice to make the three points more parallel in terms of length, but I couldn’t seem to edit, increase the number of points (by splitting them up), or reorder it effectively without negatively impacting other aspects of pacing and information reveal. More points would draw out the pages longer than I wanted, and some points were clearly sub to other points. The final here is the “good enough” version. JUST GET IT DONE ALREADY SO THAT IT CAN GO OUT INTO THE WORLD.

Sooo many word choice changes. The biggest one, done at the last second, was “They are almost always female” to “They are rarely male”. Other phrasings I debated - “They are very rarely male”, “They are almost never male”, etc. Lemme tell ya, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds… Anyways, the main reason for this was because after I drew it and ran the text through my head, the originally-intended juxtaposition of Hokushin on this page with the word “female” felt too subtle. I felt it would create a brief moment of cognitive dissonance that didn’t serve the flow of the story, so I changed it to create emphasis on the same gender instead with the rationale that it will flow more smoothly and allow the reader to focus their attention on the fact “males are very rare” more than the mental hiccup of processing the juxtaposition. DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE?? It made sense in my head.

Anyhow, I’m sure there are people who will disagree with many of the decisions I’ve made, but at least you can see what I was trying to do.

Thumbnails

As mentioned, these thumbnails were done BEFORE I decided to insert the exposition at the beginning.

The first two rows on the left hand page are actually the same set of pages - you can see little arrows pointing down or to the right whenever I’m dissatisfied with a thumbnail and attempt to redraw it.

WIPs

I really like how Hokushin turned out in the last panel here; I like the pencils more than the final inked version. It’s also another example of changing text up to the last second. In case it’s hard to make out, it says (along with what happened to them in the final):

First thought bubble: Ugh, whatever… (moved to the next page, seemed to work better as the end exclamation for this sequence of thoughts before he turns his attention to something else)

Over Hokushin’s head: Aaaargh (moved into the thought bubble)

Second thought bubble: He’s not my responsibility anyways! (no change)

First arrow:  *already feeling bad* (no change)

Second arrow:  *too responsible* (dropped, since a previous panel already said “too responsible”. Too redundant)

Next to Hokushin: All he did was tie me up in a tree (no change)

The above panel “And at night...” was a thrilling and scary thing for me lmao.  I don’t usually tackle large patches/fills of black, since many of my comics are scribbly in style (pencils, hatching) or colour. I’m too lazy for screentones, traditional or digital. It’ll be interesting as parts of the story coming up will involve poorly lit/dim/dark spaces. I’ve been reviewing how other artists handle it, particularly those with styles driven by pure-ink or minimalist type approaches. Two immediate examples from Yu Yu Hakusho that I’ve been going back to are the dark room fights during Genkai’s successor trials (I’ve taken a similar approach here), and the haunted bedroom case in volume 19. Hardcore cross-hatching seems like a likely route, but that freaks me out when I have to do it over faces. I’d like to minimize or avoid screentoning out of principle, but I still want to create a clear mood, so we’ll see how it goes...

This was my view while inking this page - holding the book in one hand while inking Hokushin with the other. Using the more freehand, sketchy inking style for this comic was so helpful in terms of reducing my inking anxiety and allowing me to work faster.

It’s always great when you can find a reference for period armor (because I find armor very difficult) that is so close to the pose you’re already drawing. There are some small differences - for example, Hokushin’s head is turned more to the right; his left arm is turned and raised more as he’s pulling the sword upwards. But it’s close enough.

Also, spotlight on a few of the books I’ve referenced over the course of working on North Bound in general and this part specifically.  

Clockwise from top left:

日本服飾史 女性編 and 男性編 (History of clothing/costume in Japan female and male editions). This marvelous set of books highlights Japanese fashion throughout history. I’ve actually been referencing these photos for a long time before I ever picked up these books - you can see them at the Costume Museum’s website here, alongside helpful line drawings and translations of some of the details. But the books allow me to see a lot more detail.

Hokusai manga vol 1 (this book is published as part of a set of 3). Sketches by Hokusai. This one focuses on “The life and manners of the day” and includes drawings of youkai, including rokurokubi, as well. You can check out the drawings online at places like The Pulverer Collection Online Catalogue.

Action references!! Real Action Pose Collection 02 (focuses on sword fights) and my favourite Samurai & Ninja Action Scene Collection. Not used as much in Long Limbs, but was helpful in some of the other chapters. The time frame is really much later than what I need for ideal clothing references, but it’s helpful for things like movement.

Kekkaishi volume 32. SPOILER a key flashback takes place about 500 years ago, which is actually a few centuries off give or take from but at least it’s closer than the Edo period. I’ve been looking at it for houses, some clothing.

Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix - Civil War parts 1 and 2. I reference this so much while working on North Bound in general. It has scenes with peasants and commoners and some appropriate street and interior environments, not just stuff focused on the aristocracy or warrior classes. Just have to remember that they flipped all the artwork in the English version lol

Bunch of Yu Yu Hakusho manga and anime references from the end of the series, mostly for Raizen, the kudakusushi and just to check against things he or Hokushin said. The actual clothing and environments are not helpful at all lol

Last minute edits

After I posted, I discovered a few mistakes (of course). I used to freak out a lot and drop everything to fix it. Now I just sigh and laugh (and still freak out a little bit, depending on the mistake) and then decide what’s important enough to fix and what is like, “Oh well, whatever, move on with my life”.

I feel that seeing other artists share their frustrations and mistakes helps a lot of people feel better about it when they realize IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME TO EVERYONE (including professionals. There are errors like this in professionally published series, like Yu Yu Hakusho, too). YOU’RE NOT ALONE. 

So, these ones bugged me enough that I quickly redrew them on the computer.